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'Lovers' Reunite - As Brother and Sister

New York Vue

by Carolyn Hinsey, Published May 13, 2001

The
next phase of ABC's crossover mania is reuniting former "One Life to
Live"
lovers Thorsten Kaye and Susan Haskell (ex-Patrick and Marty) on "Port
Charles" as new characters Ian and Granya.

This time out, though, they are playing brother and sister.

"People need to stop thinking that it's 'Marty' coming back,"
says Kaye,
who has been living with Haskell in the real world since they OLTL in
1997.

"Susan is playing Granya, who is Ian's dead sister.
It's an actress
doing a role."

PC is using the plot device of Ian talking to Granya to help
fans understand
why the heroic doctor would have married and supported a stranger named
Arianna over his well-established true love, Eve.

"Ian needed a confidant, like they have in restoration drama,
to explain
why he is doing certain things," agrees Kaye. "Why would this
guy
pick Arianna's happiness over Eve's happiness? The point is
to explain
that. It's a tool for the writers."

Ian is conjuring up Granya, who appears throughout May, as he
sits at
a chessboard.

"It's not his dead sister coming back as a ghost," he says,
"it's like
sitting by the grave of a loved one and talking to them. She
looks
the way he remembers - he knows the sound of her voice, the kind of
advice
she would give. Granya doesn't have any more information than
Ian
does. She's a sounding board. He can bounce his
concerns off
the idea of his sister so the audience can hear it."

Kaye adds that he is thrilled to be working with Haskell
again.

"Susan is one of the best actors I know," he
praises. "She is
prepared and she listens. She has this ethereal quality about
her,
but also a strength. They got someone very good to play a
very pivotal
role."

He does admit that it's strange to be playing opposite his
former on-screen
love (and current real-life love) in scenes where they are brother and
sister. The stranger element, though is that this plot twist
means
that OLTL's Patrick was in love with a woman who looked exactly like
his
dead sister, and he never mentioned it.

"That's Patrick's problem," cracks Kaye. "The weird
thing
isn't
that Granya looks like Marty, although, okay, that is weird.
The
weird thing here is that Patrick married somebody who looks just like
his
sister - and that's something he'll just have to talk about in therapy."